WARBLERS 493 



inside one inch, the diameter outside was three and a quarter 

 and inside one inch. Nests from central Maine contain less 

 moss and twigs and more pine needles and grass but are very 

 similar otherwise. The earliest date I have found fresh eggs 

 near Bangor is June third and the latest July fourth, which is 

 very exceptional and due to a very late rainy season. 



Nest building begins soon after the birds have arrived, and 

 presumably the female does most of the work, while the male 

 bird perches in a near by sapling and sings leisurely " pea- 

 cie-pea-cie-hit-i-hit-i-hit." One individual which I watched 

 while singing finally deigned to fly down and supervise the 

 nest building, even bringing one or two pieces of fibrous 

 material, but this exertion seemed too much for him and he 

 retired to sing again. 



The period of incubation is slightly over eleven days as 

 nearly as I have been able to determine it. One bird relieves 

 the other on the nest and at times when the eggs are very near 

 the hatching point I have seen the male bring insects to its 

 mate on the nest. Possibly he may feed the female at earlier 

 stages of incubation but I have not seen him do so. Both 

 birds feed the young, giving them at first soft grubs and 

 caterpillars, later on small beetles, flies and similar insects. 

 The natal down is sepia brown and rapidly replaced by the 

 juvenile plumage. The young leave about the eleventh day 

 after hatching. They acquire the first winter plumage by a 

 partial moult of the juvenile in late July and are then practically 

 indistinguishable in many instances from the adults. The 

 food of the adults consists of beetles, larvae of various insects 

 and the eggs of various insects. In fact they eat almost any- 

 thing which they can glean in the insect line from the shrub- 

 bery and ground. 



The southern migration begins in September. In the vicin- 

 ity of Bangor they are common as late as September twenty-first 

 to the twenty-eighth, according to season, but they disappear 

 very quickly, many being seen one day and none the next. The 



